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Type 3 phaser
holds a 2264 style phaser rifle]] A phaser rifle (often referred to as a type-3 phaser) is a rifle variation of the standard phaser, used by the Federation. Phaser rifles have 16 power settings, fully-autonomous recharge capability, multiple-target acquisition, and gyrostabilization. It is slightly less powerful than a Cardassian phase-disruptor rifle, and is considered by some to be less effective as a field weapon due to its complexity, despite it being more powerful than the standard phaser. (DS9: "Return to Grace") History .]] Phaser rifles were not standard inventory aboard Starfleet starships prior to the early 2370s. Spock had to make a special request for one to be brought down to Delta Vega in 2265. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before") Typically, rifles were equipped when heavier firepower than the type-2 phaser was required. Facsimile phaser rifles were created by the Romulan Star Empire in 2367 and given to rebels on the Klingon planet Krios, in an attempt to destabilise relationships between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. The only difference between the standard Federation rifle and the facsimile was the power output of the phaser beam - the emission crystal had an efficiency rating of 94.1%, eight percent above the standard model, whilst the initial output spike of the beam was inverted, a sign that the power cell had been charged with a forced pulse in the terahertz range - a method used in Romulan disruptors. (TNG: "The Mind's Eye") The 2360s version of the rifle could be modified with the use of a tracking light mounted on the central body, as well as a shoulder strap designed for ease of carrying. The compression phaser rifle was a new phaser design used aboard ''Intrepid''-class starships such as the [[USS Voyager|USS Voyager]]. (VOY: "Caretaker") More advanced phaser rifles capable of firing pulse bursts as well as the standard beam were used in the 2370s. These rifles had a pistol grip in back and either an "underbarrel grip" or a second vertaical grip underneath the barrel (similar to conventional firearms of times past), and were capable of being modified with various types of scope, barrel and power cell. (Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Nemesis) Another rifle variation was in service at the same time, and used during zero-gravity operations in the Borg incident of 2373/2063. This phaser rifle was a return to the two-handed grip seen earlier, possibly due to the awkwardness of handling a rifle from inside of a pressure suit. Phaser rifles were also used by the Bajoran Militia, based on the design of their own hand phasers. (DS9: "The Way of the Warrior") Structure Phaser rifles of the 24th Century were charcaterized by several components (TNG: "The Mind's Eye"): * Prefire chamber * Emission aperture * Rapid nadion pulse * Beam control assembly * Safety interlock * Energy cell * Discharge crystal Appearances *DS9: "...Nor the Battle to the Strong" *VOY: "Macrocosm", et al :While ''Voyager originally only used compression rifles, they later also used the First Contact variant -- indicating that weapon had been part of the ship's stores since they left DS9 in 2371. This seems anachronistic since that weapon wasn't introduced in other productions until around 2373, after Voyager departed. Even so, Deep Space Nine used two designs (the TNG rifle and the First Contact rifle) concurrently, indicating that no one design was "replaced", establishing that Federation postings could use two types simultaneously.'' :Although DS9 "Return to Grace" comments that the Cardassian rifle is more powerful, this seems unlikely if the weapon only has two settings. The Federation rifle vaporizes on level eight and setting sixteen is much more powerful. With only two settings we would have to assume that the Cardassian rifles could be set to only stun or massive overkill. (Alternatively, it is possible that the two Cardassian settings are kill and "massive overkill"; it would not be inconsistent with Cardassian nature for Cardassians to have only lethal settings for their rifles.) Based on some of the sequences, it seems likely that many of the writers assumed that the setting that vaporizes must be maximum. This seems a poor assumption given that Kirk era Type I phasers could vaporize people. Even the TOS phaser rifle was powerful; it was rarely used and the crew was surprised that Spock requested it. It was commented (jokingly) that it could have been used to shear off some of the mountain. Category:Hand-held weapons Phaser, Type-3 de:Phaser Typ 3